Posts by fireman15

There is also no dissent allowed on the “settled science” of global warming. Our nieces are visiting from California and are completely shocked that I would question what they have been taught about global warming.

Congratulations on your new grandson! Thank you for the poem also. My wife comes from a line of military wives. I hope that you won’t mind if we share it with others. We have frequent contact with Family Readiness Groups.

Reading over my posts to you... I would have been offended to. Sometimes I peck out things without considering other people’s feelings and I am sorry.

Good luck with your medical business today. There is not a lot that I dislike more than going to the doctor. I actually almost died from not getting a ruptured appendix treated until a week after it had ruptured and I had developed an infection. My wife told me that if I didn’t go to the hospital she was going to kill me herself.

Thank you for the nice message. I hope that your grandson is going to be OK. Good luck with your medical procedures. I am sorry that my messages sounded condescending. I am pretty sure that our views on nearly everything are very close.

I am going to check with the group and see if I can’t get permission to post the video I took of Ed Saylor’s presentation. They were and are an amazing bunch of guys the likes of which there is not much of a chance we will ever see again.

I forgot to mention that when we were talking to Ed Saylor in November, he mentioned that Col. Hite was in poor health. We were very surprised that Ed passed away in January because he indicated to us that he was doing pretty well, although his good friend Phil he brought him, told us that he had been under the weather.

We are down to just two then, Lt. Col. Richard Cole, and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher. We live just a few miles from where another Doolittle Raider, Lt. Col Ed Saylor lived. He died in January at the age of 94. We saw him last at the South Sound Ronald Reagan Republican Club meeting on November 11, 2014. At that time he was still walking without a cane and able to carry on a great conversation.

In June of 2013 I took video of a presentation Lt. Col Ed Saylor gave at the “Heritage Dinner” held at the Officer’s Club on McChord AFB at JBLM. He was still a very good speaker and gave us a wonderful talk.

You are correct that a few words here typically are poor indicators of how any of us are inside.

When I was growing up, my mom and dad both worked but we didn’t have much money. I was given no choice about my haircuts, when my parents decided it had gotten too long they dropped me off at the “barber school”. The directions from my dad to the student barbers were very simple; “cut it short” so we wouldn’t have to come back for a long time, and “do it fast” so I won’t have to wait when I get back from my other errands. As long as what I wanted fit these two requirements everyone was happy. Strangely all of my haircuts looked about the same no matter what I thought that I wanted. But, within a few minutes after the deed was done I went back to not caring about what my hair looked like.

I like many others here have both children and grandchildren. Growing up each occasionally perceived even trivial matters to be “soul crushing” injustices. But despite this we all continued to love each other and none seem to have any debilitating psychological scars from not always getting what they wanted. I am pretty sure that in the long run little Adam won’t be traumatized very much by the decision of his mean and nasty principal.

We thank you for your husband’s service and for your support of him. I am sorry if I misunderstood that your comments which were addressed to me were actually meant for someone else.

I mentioned the volunteer work that we do to indicate where we are coming from, not to try and get some type of praise or admiration from you or anyone else here. Recognition from high command is not given to people who have made only casual commitments to the type of work that we do. Your dismissive comments, “(rolling eyes)”, “la-ti-da” and trying to somehow make us feel bad, indicates to us only the type of person that you seem to be inside. We are the type of people who spend a major part of our time getting out and doing for others. I don’t really consider that something that should be made fun of; even if we do have disagreements here.

The policy probably wasnt against the military, but this decision was. So this was a distraction against the real issues What is or are the real issues then, in this case??

Wake up! There are no “real issue” in this case. Even if the school was making all of the boys wear exactly the same haircut and cute little suits it would still not be “soul crushing”.

I doubt whether there are any people here who are bigger supporters of military personnel than my wife and I. She was recently presented with an award for her work honoring and supporting military personnel by Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Tempel Jr., and Command Sgt. Maj. Marshall L. Huffman who are currently the Western Regional Medical Corps Command Team... this is basically everything west of the Mississippi including Alaska and Hawaii. We spend a large percentage of our time honoring and helping military personnel.

The article was written in a way that makes it appear that the principal was taking some kind of anti-military stance by enforcing the district's policy against “extreme” haircuts. Similar dress code policies can be found at schools in other conservative communities that are supportive of the military. My wife and I both initially got worked up when we read the article.

After taking the time to find other articles written about the situation we realized that we were most definitely manipulated by the author of this piece. The first clue should have been the byline, “Why is it okay for public school officials to place totally unnecessary, soul-crushing restrictions on students?” When was the last time you heard a dress code described as “soul crushing”?

If continuing to make a mountain out of a mole hill helps make you and nearly everyone else here feel like they are supporting the military without actually doing anything... then go ahead and keep it up. Have you all forgotten that the military itself has the same kind of “soul crushing” dress codes for most personnel; they also have weight restrictions that a large percentage of civilians do not meet. My wife used to teach “fat boy” exercise and nutrition classes on base to help keep people from getting discharged. Maybe everyone here should be protesting that as well? This boys mother is not doing him any favors by making the kid feel like he is being victimized by the school. My wife's dad who was a combat veteran of WWII and Korea, and a drill sergeant during Vietnam would be laughing his butt off over this. The article was written to be inflammatory. It is a little shocking to me how easily we can be manipulated and worked up over a non-event such as this.

The entire middle east is basically imploding. Obama is putting the final touches on a treaty that will allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Republicans have mostly reneged on their promises to repeal Obamacare. In thirty years the national debt has gone from 1 trillion to over 14 trillion dollars, doubling in just the time Obama has been in office. And we are wasting our time worrying about whether kids at an elementary school in a conservative part of Tennessee should be allowed to come to school with goofy looking haircuts? I think that the lack of common sense is spread far and wide.

This article is nothing but an inflammatory distraction from real issues. The school has a policy against “Mohawks” or “extreme haircuts” which is probably going to be rethought now. It was never meant to be a slight against the military. The worship director at our church has a Mohawk type of haircut which I personally find to be distracting, but he seems to think that it helps him look “cool” and attract more youth participation.

we are not geniuses you and i are not special anyone can do that if they set their mind to it. and the limiting factor is time. but if you decide to put the time and effort to it then you (anyone can accomplish anything.

That is a good credo to live by. But it is fairly obvious that you haven't had any kids and that you have not spent much if any time trying to teach others any type of technical skill. Everyone is not capable of learning everything. We most definitely are not all created with the same abilities.

I have always had a very good aptitude for problem solving, technical skills and reading. My parents realized early that I was very adventurous and learned very quickly. When I was given standardized tests in grade school and beyond I almost always scored in the top one or two percent in nearly every subject. It had nothing to do with the amount of time I put in... I actually have an ADHD type of personality and have a very difficult time sticking with any subject that I am not currently obsessed with.

My youngest grandchild is 4 years old. He was talking in full sentences and already reading when he was 3 and now easily outperforms his sister who is 6 in nearly every cerebral activity. He was given an Android Tablet that was designed for kids when he was 3 and quickly mastered every educational program on it. I assume that is how he picked up reading and has learned so many words. No one set out to teach him reading and he hasn't put in any real time or effort, other than fooling with the little tablet that. He is curious about everything, very observant and constantly asking questions. His conversational abilities are phenomenal for a four year old. He argues better than many adults that I know. He got really angry when I laughed at him and asked our daughter if he was training to be some type of circus act. I spent the rest of the evening trying to make it up to him.

I like to play the piano and guitar. I have spent a lot of time trying to pick up sight reading with sheet music on the piano. I do not have good aptitude for that, but my nephew who has never been considered extremely bright by anyone was sight reading when he was very young, and is now a skilled musician. We all have been blessed with varying abilities... we do not all learn the same... and there are some areas that each of us will never master no matter how much time or effort we put in. I am very sorry that is just the way that it works.

No you are totally wrong. there is no such thing as intelligence or ability.

Anyone can become an expert at anything through hard work, hours of daily practice at it, research, persistence,

You do have a very interesting point of view. It is not that I haven't heard it before. I watched the movie “My Fair Lady” after all. I am not trying to ridicule you in any way, but your belief is more of a philosophy for living. If your belief system gives you self-confidence and causes you to attempt to accomplish things that others would not then that is probably a good thing in most cases.

I actually live by a similar credo; and in general don't believe there is anything that I could not accomplish if only I had enough time.

But I have experienced something that it would seem that you obviously have not. I have actually worked as a tutor and instructor. I also have spent a lot of time working with the public. I can tell you from hard, long and sometimes frustrating personal experience that aptitudes and intelligence vary greatly among individuals. Insisting otherwise is completely unrealistic.

Many years ago I had a work study job at a community college tutoring people who had learning disabilities. It quickly became apparent that not only do people have different aptitudes, but people do not even think in the same way. There can be very dramatic differences in the way that people's minds work.

Since the 1980s I also have spent a lot of time teaching people how to use computers. This has also been quite eye opening. I would challenge you to “put your money where your mouth is” and volunteer or start working somewhere trying to tutor or teach. Most likely it would not take very long for you to modify your personal philosophy. People's aptitudes vary greatly. Some people are very good at certain things, but will never be able to perform well in other areas.

You are the one who has been brainwashed by the liberal media and philosophy. Conservatives generally believe in equal opportunity; many liberals believe that everyone is equal which seems to be what you are saying. Liberals then say that if there should then be equal distribution of people in every facet and level of basically everything, and if there is not then quotas need to be imposed. Is that what you believe?

If this turns out to be true... this was my first suspicion about the motive for this tragedy. Of course I would suspect that the media and governments will try and cover it up. As Obama says, “Islam is the religion of peace.”

I bought our first portable GPS unit for our airplane over 20 years ago; it was a Garmin GPS 95AVD for around $1500. It had a monochrome display that was a little larger than a postage stamp, but it was a god send. I have purchased nearly a dozen GPS units for the cars and plane since that time, I have also owned and used several types of phones and tablets with built in GPS.

We like to travel; it is so nice to just be spontaneous and get off the beaten path and find unfamiliar places on the spur of the moment.

Phones and tablets with built in GPS are great but a lot of the apps require a cell connection to work. It is hard to beat a dedicated portable. I have had portables with the same problems that you describe.

I have a Magellan that is like that. It does everything including over the air traffic updates. Often the processor in mine can’t seem to keep up with the load placed on it. It started out working fine, but after a few updates; it started acting up. It has lifetime updates and is very useful, but I have to watch it very carefully because sometimes it does show that a turn is still a little ways off when you are actually at the intersection.

There are actually optional components that I have added to the Magellan. I keep meaning to take it back to stock and then add only the components that I actually use. I don’t know if your Garman can be “cleaned” in the same way. If it can that might solve at least some of your issues.

I would agree with you to a point, but to say that intelligence means nothing is silly. I don't know what your educational background is but one of the primary reasons many people that I know believe what you do is that our educational system has been “dumbed down” dramatically over the last few decades.

It is now possible for persons of average or even less than average intelligence to complete courses of study that previously would have been out of their reach. On the surface that sounds like a good thing; unfortunately the training provided is now substandard compared to what it used to be.

This partially explains why there are so many persons who have earned “advanced degrees” in technical fields that will argue nonsense such as consensus is a valid part of the scientific method.

Hard work, determination, persistence and focus may very well get a person with less ability through difficult courses of study. In the real world these same attributes are also the most reliable predictors of success, but if they are hard working and determined those with innate intelligence and creative abilities are more often the true innovators in the real world. I am sure that you realize that discounting intelligence is a mistake.

This same thing has been going on for many decades. When I was taking pre-engineering courses 30 years ago, my Asian friends had to get higher scores than I did to get accepted into the same schools. They had quotas and the Asians were over represented in engineering programs.

These guys were very smart, very motivated and very dedicated and it had little if anything to do with memorizing questions for entrance exams. People can believe what they want about the reasons why they do so well. My guess is that it is a combination of factors.

Or should we be a nation of laws and not men and hold all equally responsible in front of the law?

I am sorry that I forgot to use the sarcasm tag. My brother-in-law is a logger and before I became a firefighter I spent eight years working in a lumber mill. I don't drink or use any mind altering drugs. Although I have to admit that despite my sarcasm I couldn't care less if the guys assigned to protect Obama are a bunch of blithering idiots. None of our enemies want him dead because they know he is doing more harm to our country than they could do with a dozen 9-11 type of attacks.

If I saw them out and out somewhere I would gladly give them a couple of cases of beer or whatever else they preferred. I don’t drink, but taking care of the useless hunk of flesh currently occupying the Whitehouse must be a terrible strain. I think it is only fair that they should be allowed to be stoned out of their minds while doing it.

Many years ago my wife had a friend whose mother, aunts, and sisters all had breast cancer and most of them had died from it. She decided that she didn’t want to face the same fate. At that time it was very difficult to find a doctor who would do it. After they removed her breasts they found in the biopsies that she already had developing breast cancer. She is still alive.

From the article, “And I’d take it a step further by concluding that each gun taken off the street is one less death.”

With his math skills, Jamar might have a bright future in the global warming computer modeling community. Since American citizens own approximately 300 million guns... and their are approximately 300 million legal citizens in the country... we will all be gone soon if we Jamal’s modest proposal isn’t adopted. If all the people who want to come to the country illegally could just hold their horses... there won’t be anyone left to stop them. But there also won’t be anyone left to pay for their food stamps, free medical, and welfare so what would be the point?

They have squandered so much of their political clout on this farce that they keep having to double down. They don’t believe in the death penalty for even mass murderers, but they believe in the death penalty for those who are skeptical of their false claims.

If she is afraid to take questions even from admiring throngs of her greatest supporters in the media... I think it means that she knows her chances in the primary are falling quickly. And if she does not become the Dim’s candidate this time around she will fade into oblivion.

Every article will call him a first termer. They never said that about Obama, but it appears to be a major line of attack.

It is interesting to see the way that the liberal media is dancing around this. Nearly every article mentions his place of birth (Canada), many articles try to say that both of his parents were from Cuba, they pretty much all call him a freshman legislator. This article mentions a number of other liberal smears but attributes them to others, Like Sarah Palin’s annoying younger brother and Your Racist Uncle's Favorite Candidate.

It is all very underhanded but a little amusing to see these race baiting slimebags try to figure out how to form their lines of attack. They are ready to pounce, but they are not sure how to do it yet. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

This is just the opening salvo of misinformation from NBC. Brace yourselves because this is just the beginning. Soon it will be our turn to call Democrats, “birthers”. They ran a guy with no credible history or documentation and trashed anyone who wanted answers.

I remember the picture. It happened at an organized event in Matamoros, Mexico, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. The guy driving was drunk and fell asleep at the wheel. One person was killed and ten others were seriously injured.

When I was much younger I used to bicycle race all over the country. I averaged 10,000 miles a year on my bicycles at that time.

Getting through corners and steep turns quickly was one of the things that I practiced. Often when finding your limits you go a little past them and are left with the scars to remind you later.

One time when riding in the winter; when I put the brakes on to stop for a stoplight, I hit some black ice and immediately found myself on the ground and slid all the way through an intersection with a busy 4 lane road. Fortunately, it was early and there was no traffic.

Another time it was raining hard and I hit some gravel on a fairly sharp corner and slid all the way across the road and into the ditch on the other side. When I got I picked a large piece of gravel out of my elbow that I still have an impressive scar from... 35 years later.

There were many other crashes some during races where half a dozen other riders ran over me. But the two I mentioned were the most memorable because at the time I felt so lucky that a car or truck hadn’t hit me.

Now that I am retired... I have been trying to prepare for a potential new career. There are so many good curriculums available for out of state students at the University of Michigan for just a few thousand dollars per quarter. Because of my interest in Ghost hunting I had settled on their major in Parapsychology but couldn't decide on a minor. Now that I can get a minor in LGBTQ studies it is all settled.

You are probably right, but I have seen stories where they basically were saying the US military was planning for problems caused by “global warming”... this is despite the fact that satellite data shows that there has been none for 18 years or more.

One of the primary reasons that the warmists want this “research” tacked into the defense budget is because they feel it will give the predefined results more credibility. By saying that the US Military is planning for global warming it adds credibility, despite it being just the same old nonsense.

I cannot speak directly to your specific issue. However we had a lot of digestive problems with our current dachshund over the years and tried loads of different expensive specialty dog foods suggested by our vet. Someone who had been having a lot of difficulties with her cat suggested that we make our own food. We checked with our vet and she gave us a few suggestions for ingredients to include. The problems went away almost immediately and have never returned. Apparently the dog food manufacturers were adding something that caused digestive problems for our dachshund.

For our dachshund most of the time we just take a frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast from Costco and heat it over low heat in a small frying pan for 20 minutes until it reaches 170 degrees. We cut it in half and save one half for the following day. We then smash up the half we are using into small chunks in the bowl we feed her with.

At the same time we are heating the chicken we make some instant rice. We use twice the normal amount of water and let it simmer on low temperature until the water is all absorbed by the rice. We top the chunked up chicken with a couple table spoons of this super moist rice. Then we add a couple tablespoons of mixed vegetables and a teaspoon of butter. We mix it all up very thoroughly. The dog is very finicky so we eat some of it in front of her and then she wolfs it down. We also give her a doggy multi-vitamin recommended by the vet.

The next day we mix up the ingredients that have been kept in the refrigerator and microwave them enough so that we can get the butter to melt. We sometimes alter this recipe slightly by using other left over meats, sometimes mashed potatoes instead of rice, and also variations on the vegetables often adding a little mixed fruit in with them.

The dog had all sorts of problems and was looking terrible until we started doing this. It might take a little research to figure out what is best to feed your cat, but I no longer trust animal food companies. Our dog has been feeling a lot better since we took her nutrition into our own hands. Our vet wasn’t the one who told us about this; it was a friend who was having all sorts of difficulties with her cat which is why I thought this might be helpful to you.

I agree with much of what you say. I can only speak based on my experiences which may be very different from people who work in other areas. But in my experience your impression about “good cops” being able to get “bad cops” fired is only partially correct. During their first year on the job they can be fired quite easily, but after that because of the unions it is very difficult to get rid of them.

Unfortunately, the type of police officer that you would consider a “bad cop” is often the type of person that is most adept at manipulating the system. They are also often the type of person who thrives within the unions. This is why when you see videos of union people harassing Scott Walker they can be so nasty. Some of them are also fairly good at climbing the ladder within police or fire departments.

Many years ago one of my very best friend’s daughter was murdered by her husband who was the chief of police of the city that I was employed by. He was a monster and under his leadership the police department lost its way for a while. My friend is now in his 80s and he still goes all around the country speaking about spousal abuse by police officers and I believe has done a lot of good.

It takes a lot of vigilance in the first year to make sure that those who are going to cause problems later do not make it. After that it can be a major battle to get rid of them. It is not as serious a problem for the public when you have a jerk fireman.

Macho jerk firefighters tend to be more comical in nature... driving around in a big brightly colored 4 wheel drive truck with a firefighter license plate and a bunch of union stickers. Often they are macho looking guys with well developed mustaches and an attitude that they are better than everyone else. They can be found in local bars and night spots drinking and chasing women. After their third or fourth marriage they usually have developed a large belly and can’t afford a newer vehicle and they have a bitter attitude. Other than being an extreme pain in the butt to their co-workers, unlike “bad cops” they are not much of a threat to the public.

So I will clarify, the vast majority of police that I worked with in the past few years were “good cops” who cared about serving the public. This was largely because they have been under the leadership of a great chief. This probably has skewed my feelings about the police toward the positive.

My wife had a cop on Mercer Island in Washington stop her every time she passed him. He would berate her and say all sorts of insulting things. When I called and talked to the dispatchers to complain they laughed about it and said he was a really nice guy. I finally called the chief directly and the harassment stopped, but later we saw that he had another woman who looked very similar to my wife pulled over.

So I do not deny that there are bad cops and probably bad departments. Fortunately, the police that I worked with were good guys and the department was run by a strong leader who let them know exactly how he expected citizens to be treated. His officers respected him and for the most part followed his wishes.

It makes one wonder if this so called “mega-church” is actually even a Christian organization at this point or if it has morphed into some new age feel good social group. My wife and I are among the most conservative members of our church. They are constantly focused on pandering to young people. They think that if they have a loud band instead of a choir and sing modern Christian music instead of Hymns that young people will flock to the church.

My wife and I were taught to dress nice when going to Church but they all wear jeans and ratty looking clothes. We were actually chastised for dressing nice by some of the people there. They think that young people won’t bother going to church if everyone else looks nice. I kind of see this “church’s” policy on gay people as an extension of the same crap going on in our church and it makes me wonder if we won’t be looking for a new church one day soon.

They couldn’t possibly have asked the two comedians they were meeting with to alter their schedules or meeting places to save the tax payers a million or so dollars. Or wait... even a better idea... maybe the comedians could come to the Whitehouse to tape them pandering to the Obama’s.

If a majority of cops are good cops, then there would be no bad cops.

It would be nice if that were the case, but in my experience that is not the way that it works in real life. I really can't say how things are with police in other places. In my case I worked for a large city which contracted with a smaller outlying city to provide fire service. The smaller city had its own police department and in my opinion the people working as police there were much more customer service oriented than the police that worked for the city that I was employed by. We also worked with tribal police who were entirely different from the other two departments.

The chief of police in the small city was an amazing guy and a devout Christian who I still respect greatly. He ran a very tight ship and loved his community. He collected toys, and contributions every year through the explorer scout organization that he worked with. Every year before Christmas we walked through all of the neighborhoods in the community with one guy dressed as Santa with the rest of us handing out candy and presents to the kids. This took approximately six full days. We were on duty but ready to respond to any calls that came in. Many days the weather was just awful, but we and the police did it anyway. There were a lot of poor people who lived in the town and a lot of the kids really seemed to enjoy this.

I could tell you more stories of things that we did for people than you would ever care to know... some of it I am sure that you wouldn't even believe.

A lady whose husband was in Iraq came to our station and said she had a dead battery. My crew and I went to her house and tried to give her a jump, but her battery was bad. The three of us went to the auto parts store and bought her a new battery. We thought that they would give us a discount but they didn't. Another time we found an old man lying in the ditch. He wasn't drunk but he was cold and wet and just got tired. He didn't want to go to the hospital. We went back to the station and got him a pair of good boots and a dry pair of socks while the police warmed him up in their car. The police gave him a ride to the bus station and bought him a ticket to get him home which was 75 miles away.

One time a lady of the evening who was walking to the casino found a disoriented little old lady wandering in the night. She took her to this sleazy motel where it was warm. It was way below freezing and the old lady would most likely have died from exposure. My crew and I gave the call girl a ride to the casino in the fire engine and let her off at the front door. I told the casino security that she had just saved a life.

I could just go on and on; the mayor, former mayor, and most of the city council came to my retirement party. I had them and my co-workers laughing so hard that they were crying and pounding on the tables by talking about some of the ridiculously kind things we did for people over the years. The thing that I loved about my job is that I got paid to help people and every day we were given a lot of opportunities to do just that. Many of the police that I worked with had that same kind of spirit. But I know that the chief of my fire department and the mayor and city council all approved of how I did my job. The chief or the police department that I worked with for the last several years also approved of the kindness we showed our citizens whenever we could. I am sorry that a lot of police departments are not run that same way, but there are lots of good cops who care about their communities.

I worked on a daily basis with police officers for approximately 25 years. The vast majority were good guys who cared a lot about the citizens that we were hired to serve. I was actually in an area that has more than its share of problems, and we did a lot to help those in need.

There were a couple who were jerks. He swore and threatened to arrest me when I stood up to him when I felt that he was treating a couple of citizens poorly. He got himself into trouble when he tried to get me into trouble by reporting the situation to his chief.